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How did we ever get along without Twitter? And Tweeters like Jeff Foust from Spacepolitics.com, Miles O'Brien from This Week in Space, and NASA's own Wayne Hale? Their tweets from the Space Foundation's National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs makes it seem like being there yourself! Here are a few samples from today's events featuring NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, Commander of Air Force Space Command Gen. Robert Kehler, and a space investment industry panel. Check Twitter or these guys' blogs for more of their news and views.

jeff_foust: Bolden: this is a big week for space. More people will be thinking about it than perhaps ever before

jeff_foust: Bolden: the new plan features incremental, measured progress based on heritage and building upon milestones

jeff_foust: Bolden: can't express just how passionate Obama and I are about education, why it's an impt part of the plan

jeff_foust: Bolden ends with call to work together to fully realize NASA's goals. Leaves without taking any questions

jeff_foust: Gen. Kehler: in plans we used to put a big red circle around launch day. Now we put it around the day that capability enters service

jeff_foust: Kehler: we're using the same strategy for milspace programs as we did in Cold War. Have to realize that 1 strategy doesn't fit all.

jeff_foust: Next panel as #nss10 features Wall St analysts talking about space industry. Mass exodus from the room

jeff_foust: Good news for the space industry: investors have short memories and have forgotten the disasters of a decade ago



this_week_in_space: At the space syposium in CO - Charlie Bolden trying to sell skeptical/angry crowd on Obama space plan. Tough crowd



wayne_hale: At the NSS, Gen Kahler is giving a great, thoughtful, heartfelt speech that clearly explains goals and issues. We could learn from him.

wayne_hale: Listening to Charlie Bolden at the National Space Symposium. He's doing his best to make the case.

Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and a long list of former astronauts and retired NASA officials penned an open letter to President Obama warning that his new plan for NASA could "force as many as 30,000 irreplaceable engineers and managers out of the space industry."

Calling the plan "a terrible decision," the letter urges the President "to demonstrate the vision and determination necessary to keep our nation at the forefront of human exploration...." The full text of the letter appears below. President Obama is scheduled to speak at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday in what many are calling a "space summit" to further elucidate his vision for NASA, whose outlines were revealed in NASA's FY2011 budget request on February 1.

Here is the text of the open letter to the President.

Dear President Obama;

America is faced with the near-simultaneous ending of the Shuttle program and your recent budget proposal to cancel the Constellation program. This is wrong for our country for many reasons. We are very concerned about America ceding its hard earned global leadership in space technology to other nations. We are stunned that, in a time of economic crisis, this move will force as many as 30,000 irreplaceable engineers and managers out of the space industry. We see our human exploration program, one of the most inspirational tools to promote science, technology, engineering and math to our young people, being reduced to mediocrity. NASA's human space program has inspired awe and wonder in all ages by pursuing the American tradition of exploring the unknown. We strongly urge you to drop this misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future.

For those of us who have accepted the risk and dedicated a portion of our lives to the exploration of outer space, this is a terrible decision. Our experiences were made possible by the efforts of thousands who were similarly dedicated to the exploration of the last frontier. Success in this great national adventure was predicated on well defined programs, an unwavering national commitment, and an ambitious challenge. We understand there are risks involved in human space flight, but they are calculated risks for worthy goals, whose benefits greatly exceed those risks.

America's greatness lies in her people: she will always have men and women willing to ride rockets into the heavens. America's challenge is to match their bravery and acceptance of risk with specific plans and goals worthy of their commitment. NASA must continue at the frontiers of human space exploration in order to develop the technology and set the standards of excellence that will enable commercial space ventures to eventually succeed. Canceling NASA's human space operations, after 50 years of unparalleled achievement, makes that objective impossible.

One of the greatest fears of any generation is not leaving things better for the young people of the next. In the area of human space flight, we are about to realize that fear; your NASA budget proposal raises more questions about our future in space than it answers.

Too many men and women have worked too hard and sacrificed too much to achieve America's preeminence in space, only to see that effort needlessly thrown away. We urge you to demonstrate the vision and determination necessary to keep our nation at the forefront of human space exploration with ambitious goals and the proper resources to see them through. This is not the time to abandon the promise of the space frontier for a lack of will or an unwillingness to pay the price.

Sincerely, in hopes of continued American leadership in human space exploration.

Walter Cunningham
Apollo 7

Chris Kraft
Past Director JSC

Jack Lousma
Skylab 3, STS 3

Vance Brand
Apollo-Soyuz, STS-5,
STS-41B, STS-35

Bob Crippen
STS-1, STS-7,
STS-41C, STS-41G
Past Director KSC

Michael D. Griffin
Past NASA Administrator

Ed Gibson
Skylab 4

Jim Kennedy
Past Director KSC

Alan Bean
Apollo 12, Skylab 3

Alfred M. Worden
Apollo 15

Scott Carpenter
Mercury Astronaut

Glynn Lunney
Gemini-Apollo Flight Director

Jim McDivitt
Gemini 4, Apollo 9
Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager

Gene Kranz
Gemini-Apollo Flight Director
Past Director NASA Mission Ops.

Joe Kerwin
Skylab 2

Fred Haise
Apollo 13,
Shuttle Landing Tests

Gerald Carr
Skylab 4

Jim Lovell
Gemini 7, Gemini 12,
Apollo 8, Apollo 13

Jake Garn
STS-51D,
U.S. Senator

Charlie Duke
Apollo 16

Bruce McCandless
STS-41B, STS-31

Frank Borman
Gemini 7, Apollo 8

Paul Weitz
Skylab 2, STS-6

George Mueller
Past Associate Administrator
For Manned Space Flight

Harrison Schmitt
Apollo 17,
U.S. Senator

Gene Cernan
Gemini 9, Apollo 10,
Apollo 17

Dick Gordon
Gemini 11, Apollo 12

On this day in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to fly into space. His one orbit of the Earth in Vostok 1 catalyzed the new John F. Kennedy Administration to boldly announced just six weeks later the goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the decade. In the intervening weeks, Alan Shepard became the first American astronaut to reach the limits of space, though his flight was suborbital (John Glenn was the first astronaut to orbit the Earth, in February 1962). Gagarin died in 1968 in a military aircraft accident in circumstances that remain unclear even today.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week. For more information, see our calendar on the right menu or click on the links below. Times, dates, and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change; check with the relevant committee for up to date information.

The BIG event, of course, is President Obama's space conference at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), FL on Thursday. The few details that have been made public so far are that the President will make a major space policy address and meet privately with some Members of Congress, and there will be four panel sessions on various topics. SpacePolicyOnline.com will post further information as it becomes available. According to NASA Administrator Bolden, the event will be broadcast on NASA TV. Florida Today reports that the President will arrive at KSC at 1:45 pm, speak at 3:00 pm, and depart at 3:45 pm.

Monday-Thursday, April 12-15

• 26^th National Space Symposium, Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, CO

Monday, April 12

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Astrophysics subcommittee, by telephone and WebEx, 2:00-5:00 pm EDT. Any interested person may call the USA toll free conference call number 800-779-1627, passcode APS.

Tuesday, April 13

• NAC Space Operations Committee, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 3:00-5:00 pm CDT.

Wednesday, April 14

• House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee hearing with outside witnesses and Members of Congress, 9:00 am EDT, H-309 Capitol

Thursday, April 15

• President Obama's Space Conference, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), FL. Florida Today reports that the President will arrive at KSC at 1:45 pm. speak at 3:00 pm, and depart at 3:45 pm.

Thursday-Friday, April 15-16

• NAC Information Technology Infrastructure Committee, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. - April 15: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm EDT; April 16, 11:00 am -5:0 pm EDT
• NAC Planetary Defense Task Force, Boston Marriott Cambridge Hotel, Cambridge, MA - April 15: 11:30 am - 5:30 pm EDT; April 16: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm EDT

NASA officials are currently conducting a media briefing on "workforce breakdowns" for each NASA center for the new NASA program announced in the FY2011 budget request. Documents have been posted on NASA's budget website with much of the information being briefed. So far, there is lots of information about how many dollars will be spent at the centers, but not the number of people needed to accomplish the tasks.

President Obama will make a major space policy address and meet privately with Members of Congress at the space conference he has scheduled for April 15 at Kennedy Space Center. Those are the first formal public tidbits about what will happen that day, revealed by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden during a media teleconference this afternoon. He said that the event will be by invitation only, but will be broadcast on NASA TV. It will also feature four panel sessions where NASA hopes to obtain input from a variety of individuals, though who they are was not announced. Gen. Bolden said that he was not in charge of the invitation list. He said that NASA would rely on the media to get the word out about what transpires at the meeting, but it remains unclear as to who from the media will be allowed in.

NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) announced yesterday that it is adding a new task to its contract with Wyle Integrated Science & Engineering Group. The action procures technical expertise for JSC's Space Life Sciences Directorate "to provide updates to an initial set of Commercial Human Systems Integration Requirements, to deliver a Commercial Medical Operations Requirements Document for use in commercial crew transportation services, and to deliver a set of design processes to provide guidance for commercial spacecraft designers." The work apparently will be funded with Recovery Act (i.e., stimulus bill) money.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will hold a media teleconference at 2:00 pm EDT today (Thursday) "about the next steps in implementing the agency's new exploration initiatives outlined in the new fiscal year 2011 budget." Joining them will be the four Mission Directorate Associate Administrators (Bill Gerstenmaier, Doug Cooke, Ed Weiler and Jaiwon Shin) and Chief Technologist Bobby Braun. Information on how news media representatives can call in is provided in the NASA press release.

The Ku-band antenna on Space Shuttle Discovery is not working, according to NASA. Among other things, the antenna is used to downlink high data rate communications, including television. That means images being taken today of Discovery's thermal protection system (TPS) will have to be recorded and transmitted back to Mission Control after the shuttle docks with the International Space Station (ISS) using the ISS antenna. Imaging the TPS to check for damage is a routine precaution since the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy. Spaceflightnow.com reports that the antenna also is used as a radar dish during rendezvous operations, but that the crew has other instruments it can use and the loss of the antenna should not be a major problem.

UPDATE: Discovery is off on its mission to the International Space Station with a successful launch at 6:21 am..

ORIGINAL STORY: Space Shuttle Discovery has come out of its last planned hold and is GO! for launch at 6:21 am this morning -- in less than 9 minutes. Live on NASA TV and Spaceflightnow.com.